Trusted Ways to Make Money With Smartphone: More Than 10 apps

How to Make Money With Your Mobile Phone or Smartphone? Here is everything to know in 2021 and 2022. Smartphones come with many applications that are already installed or can be downloaded to the smartphone.

Every day, many more applications are launched on the market, and consequently, the possibility of making money with the help of these applications has increased. With the increase in job searches and the unavailability of jobs, there are now many ways that you can earn money from using your smartphone.

Some of these ways include:

1. Answer survey questions
2. As a freelance field agent
3. Online customer service
4. Virtual assistant
5. Digital advertising
6. Playing games
7. Watch videos, etc.

These jobs can be done as full-time or part-time workers. You can keep your regular job and use these online jobs as a way to earn extra money in your pocket to pay your bills.

Ways to make money with your mobile phone or smartphone that really work

• Freelancing: This is one of the safest ways to earn money using your smartphone. All you need is a good smartphone and a good internet connection. If you have a laptop, it is an added advantage for you. You can get writing jobs online and data entry jobs too. The sites that pay for such jobs are Fiverr, Guru.com, People per hour, etc. These sites pay very good rewards for your work.
• Surf the web and watch online videos: A good number of websites and applications pay good money to be on your site, whether it is by watching advertisements, short video clips, etc. Some of these applications are listed below:

• Swagbucks: This is one of the most popular apps where you can earn money by shopping, watching videos, and answering paid surveys. In the end, you can redeem your money through PayPal or through the use of gift cards.
• Fronto: This is another application that allows you to read news articles, product offers, and reviews, as well as view advertisements to earn points. You can also earn bonus points for downloading free apps.

• Shop: There are smartphone apps that pay you to buy items that are already on your shopping list, ranging from groceries, clothing, perfumes, and toiletries. Here are some popular paid apps to buy:

• Ibotta: Before you go shopping, you need to complete a few simple tasks in the app, each related to your favorite brands or products that you regularly buy. All you have to do is go to the store, take a photo of your receipt after making payments, and a refund amount will be credited to you. You can charge through PayPal.
• Shopkick: This app pays you to spend time in certain stores where you can shop. All you do here is scan barcodes and earn points that you can redeem for gift cards to use at your favorite stores.

• Sell Items You No Longer Need: We all have things we no longer need, and you can sell them on various sites online for cash. All you need to do is take clear pictures of what you need to sell and post them in line with the price tag and your phone number. Below are some notable sites that you can sell your stuff on:

• In this app, you help sellers meet potential buyers. It will capture your product or what you need to sell and put it in various categories already ordered in the app and put your price and phone number for buyers to contact you.
• Poshmark: Like the Jiji app, you take pictures of the clothes you want to sell and post them immediately for sale. Poshmark is also a marketplace where you can buy and sell other things.
  eBay: On eBay, you sign up for an account, post items for sale, and wait for customers to bid. It is very simple, fast, and easy to use.

• Play Games: for game lovers, do not stay out since there are applications that pay very well for you to rest their games and give them feedback. An example of an application that pays to play is:

• Qriket: In this app, all you do is spin a wheel to earn money. You select colors and spin the wheel. Although it is not a great money-making app, you will surely get a very decent amount.

• Paid Surveys: One of the best methods to earn money on your smartphone is by completing online surveys. You can use your opinions to make money by visiting survey sites to share your thoughts, which are very valuable to companies who are willing to pay for them. Examples of such sites and applications are:

On this site, you will need to create an account with your email and then start receiving notifications of new available surveys. Then submit and receive payment.

• InboxDollars: There are many ways to make money with InboxDollars, such as watching videos, clicking ads, reading emails, shopping online, surfing the internet, and taking surveys.

• Download apps and earn: There are apps that give you rewards for downloading them and keeping them on your smartphone. Market research companies like to collect data and remain anonymous to study trends. It is better to go only with trusted brands with such applications so as not to be scammed.
• As a virtual assistant, you can work as an assistant to someone who has a lot to do. There are individuals and partner organizations who are looking for virtual assistants and are willing to pay them very well. You don’t need a physical office to do this. From the comfort of your home, you can monitor this and work comfortably.
• Online Tutor: If you are knowledgeable and have the ability to impact others with your knowledge, you can start an online tutoring class that people can access and pay for. It can be in a single or large class setting. You can choose a particular topic or course that you are very confident in and influence the knowledge of other people while also earning a reasonable income.
• Make YouTube videos: YouTube is known to be a good site where you can earn extra money. You can do little plays for fun, online tutoring classes on how to make cakes, tie gels, make simple dresses, etc., and thus earn a good amount of money. All you need is to have a YouTube channel where you can post your videos and get people to subscribe to your channel and get paid. It is a good source of income just from the use of your smartphone.

 

Top 10 Money Earning Apps – Best of 2022

Best Apps to Make Money Fast

I never thought twice about earning money from my phone. Fast-forward to the age of smartphones, and it started to make sense. Today, it’s amazing how easy it is to earn some side cash from the palm of my hand!

If you’re looking for new ways to make extra money, you’ll want to check out the top 10 money earning apps.

There are more than 10 apps that can earn you money, but I wanted to point out the best apps to make money fast.

You can also check out the highest paying apps to make sure you’re making the most money for your time.

This list includes money making apps for Android phones and iOS.

I personally earn money from the top 5 apps in this list and will also share with you 5 other legitimate money-earning apps through people I’ve interviewed and testimonials.

Out of all the online earning apps I have used and researched, these are the winners.

If you’re looking for more ways to make money, definitely check out our most popular article, 30 Legitimate Ways to Make Money from Home from People who are Doing It Today.

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The Top 10 Money Earning Apps that Make You the Most Money
Download each of these legit apps to make money from your phone! I truly believe that these are the best apps to make money fast, even as a busy mom.

 

1. Rakuten

Rakuten is one of my favorite online best earning apps because you get cash back for things you’re going to buy anyway, as long as you do it through their app. How? Stores pay Rakuten a commission for sending customers to their store. Rakuten splits that commission with you, so you both win.

I’ve made over $500 from shopping online through Rakuten and referring friends.

When I know I want to purchase something and I don’t need it right away, I buy it online (if shipping is free) to take advantage of my Rakuten perks.

I have a nice check for $265 on the way! This is the best Android app for earning money, and it’s now available on iOS!

If you use my link to sign up with Rakuten, you get $30 when you spend at least $30 online.

I absolutely LOVE it.

 

2. Dosh

Dosh is a must-have cash back app. It’s all passive income since all you need to do is link your credit or debit card and it will automatically give you cash back when you shop, eat, travel, and more at participating local and national merchants.

I forgot I had this app, and I was out to dinner with my husband for our anniversary and received this email after we paid:

And this keeps happening when I use my credit card at participating merchants!

I’ve made $75 with this app from using my card at participating stores and referring friends.

 

3. Ibotta

Your cashback will be deposited into your Ibotta account within 48 hours.

I’ve made $105.53 so far from a combination of shopping and referring friends. If you tell your friends to sign up, they get $10 and you get $5!

 

4. Acorns

Acorns is a neat money earning app to get you to start micro-investing. It rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference on your behalf.

For example, if you buy a coffee for $1.75, Acorns will round it up to $2.00 and automatically invest $0.25 in “smart portfolios”.

You can link as many credit or debit cards as you like, and put your “change” to work for you in a low-cost ETF.

I recently downloaded this app and made over $50 without even noticing. There are no fees associated with withdrawing, just keep in mind that there may be more of a tax implication for the following year.

 

5. Swagbucks:

 

Swagbucks is another app for earning money that will pay you to take surveys, watch videos, search the web, refer friends, and test products. This app won’t make you rich, but it’s an easy way to make some extra money.

I’ve recently downloaded this app and I’m at 477 SB (Swagbucks). If you sign up with my referral link, you’ll already beat me with the $5 sign-up bonus. I could get a $5 Amazon Gift Card (1 SB = 1 cent) with this amount, but I plan on doing the things mentioned above, which will help me earn $50-$100 a month.

If you want to make more money with surveys, check out Survey Junkie and PrizeRebel. These are the only survey sites I recommend.

 

6. HealthyWage

HealthyWage is a money earning app supported by the government to incentivize people to lose weight by putting their own money at risk with the potential to earn up to $10,000!

If you don’t hit your goal, your money goes to support HealthyWage, including prizes for others who achieve their goals.

You can see how Jaclyn won $5,294.12 and Anastasia won $10,000 here.

 

7. Instacart:

Do you need to make money fast? Consider using Instacart and get paid for doing something you do almost every week: grocery shopping.

People pay for convenience every day, and that does not exclude the daunting task of grocery shopping. For those who want to leave the shopping to someone else, it opens a door for you to fulfill the orders, make the delivery, and get paid.

You can easily make $100 or more per day in just 3 hours. This is one of the best apps to make money fast.

I did a full review of Instacart and you can check it out to learn more, or you can just apply to become a shopper here.

If you like Instacart, you’ll definitely love Shipt. It’s pretty much the same thing with an average pay of $22 per hour. Click here to apply to become a driver!

 

8. Seated

So, here’s the thing: when I became a stay-at-home mom, we had to cut costs on going out to eat. I need every incentive to go out to eat, and thanks to Seated, I get paid when I eat out if I make a reservation through their app.

The payment is in gift cards, and you can typically make $10 to $50 each time you book a reservation. I know someone who eats out a lot and made $200 in one month using this online earning app.

Restaurants are always looking for ways to get new, loyal customers. That’s why they are willing to give $10-$50 in the hopes that they become loyal customers. The Seated app is such a great idea.

9. Foap

You do not have to be a professional photographer, but it would be good to learn how to take quality photos with your smartphone.

 

12 Tips to Avoid Making Money Online Scams

Wouldn’t it be nice to make money from home, have more freedom, more time and independence?

It all sounds so good. The digital entrepreneur lifestyle appeals to just about everyone, which is why the make money online (MMO) industry is flooded with scams and people who sell inferior products and programs that don’t deliver.

With a little bit of research and some knowledge, it gets easier to separate the lies from the truth.

What Are Make Money Online Scams?
Defining what a scam is… isn’t always easy.

Wikipedia describes it as an attempt to defraud someone by first gaining their confidence.

But, by that definition, you could argue that every fast food restaurant scams us by putting up false pictures of big juicy burgers… When really, what they sell is a bun with condiments and an embarrassingly small piece of meat buried in there somewhere.

So, what makes a scam a scam isn’t so clear.

There are flat-out scams. The ones that take your money and run, or get you to install malicious software.

And then there are the semi-scams. The ones that provide some value but fall far short of their promise. Or, they give you something up front only to pull you further into their money-sucking funnel.

In the make-money-online industry, a common tactic is selling products that only give you one piece of the puzzle. Sometimes it’s because that’s the only piece the seller knows, and other times it’s because they’re leaving a trail of crumbs that just leads to more spending.

And then there’s the bait and switch.

For example, I recently reviewed a course that taught you how to rank your videos in the #1 spot on YouTube. No one can make that promise, and if by chance, someone stumbles upon a simple “trick” that does work, they’re not going to share it publicly… The trick won’t last for long, as search engines have gotten good at fixing these glitches.

Sure enough, after going through several tutorials, the person teaching the course said, “This probably isn’t going to work for high and medium-level competition videos, but it should work for low-level competition ones.”

In other words, the course did not deliver on what it promised. However, there was some really good information in the course, and the person clearly went through a lot of effort to create it.

So, was it a scam? Unfortunately, even though the course provided some good value, a deceptive ‘hook’ was used to sell it. Some might call that a scam.

 

How To Spot Make Money Online Scams?

The following 12 tips (or identifiers to watch for) might seem obvious to some, but that’s not always enough to stop us from making poor decisions, especially when it comes to money.

Most of us have seen these “red flags” before, and we know better. But, emotions and the hope that something will work can still get the best of us.

The promise of a better life is so appealing that online money making scams still catch people who should (and probably do) know better.

So, how do we spot these scams?

Before we get started, while most of these indicators are a good sign that something deceptive is going on, they are not a guarantee. If something still looks like it might have value, it’s worth it to do further research.

Every once in awhile, even legit products and programs fall into what may be considered deceptive marketing tactics. Just like the big juicy burger pictures.

Within minutes, you’ll be making money.
The most obvious “tell” that you’ve found a scam is the get-rich-quick promise.

Making money online just doesn’t work like that.

Some of these scams are so blatant that they claim you can get rich with a simple 3-step process. While many real programs simplify their processes by breaking them down into steps, the implication is not quite the same.

Here’s a good example of a scam. There are only 3 steps here; Step 1 is to “set up an account and log in.”

Step 3 is “deposit money in your bank account”. So, what is step 2?

That’s all you have to do. Just use the course, deposit your money, and enjoy life.

You can’t make this stuff up. (Well… someone did).

 

A Getting Rich Quick Analysis

Let’s look at this from a different perspective.

Some of these programs claim you can make $10 or $20 for just a few minutes of work. If you do the math, that’s hundreds of dollars an hour.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to earn that kind of money, but if you knew a guaranteed method to make hundreds an hour that was so easy anyone could do it, what would you do with that information?

You could create a course and sell it, but…

I’ll tell you what a business-minded person would do if it was absolutely guaranteed (like putting 10 bucks into a machine that spits out twenty dollars guaranteed).

They’d hire someone (or a few dozen people) to do the work for them, pay them by the hour, fill their bank accounts with the money left over, and retire somewhere warm.

The reason they don’t is because it’s not that easy, and it’s not guaranteed.

 

2. They Don’t Tell You What You Will Be Doing

If you’re like me, you don’t put your debit or credit cards into a machine without knowing exactly what you’re paying for.

The same rule applies when buying something online.

However, many of these scams don’t work that way. They ask for your money up front. You will be shown a sales page, but the real “secret” is only revealed after you pay for it.

 

The truth is, there is no “secret”.

Making money online is like anything else. It’s a process, it requires work, and you have to learn how to do it.

No one is selling the “secret” to fixing cars. Or, the “secret” to playing the piano.

They are all just skills that require knowledge, training, and practice.

And, if you were to check out a school that teaches auto mechanics or piano lessons, you would not be sent to a sales page with a “buy now” button.

What you would likely see is a course description outlining everything you will learn, a schedule, and maybe even the course objectives and outcomes.

A legitimate make-money-online program will usually explain, in at least some detail, what they teach and what you will be doing.

 

3. Watch For The $1 Trial and Money Back Guarantee

While it’s not a sure-fire indicator of a scam, the $1 trial is simply a way to get your credit card. Not necessarily for fraudulent purposes, but to identify you as a buyer. (and disqualify those that are not).

When your credit card comes out (even for $1), you are identified as a “buyer with intent”.

There’s nothing wrong with that, and it doesn’t mean you’re being scammed. But it’s something to be aware of.

Car dealers use this method all the time to determine if you’re a potential buyer. They ask for a small deposit, and even though it’s refundable, it demonstrates a level of intent and commitment.

I certainly don’t want to discourage you from purchasing products that have a discounted (or free) trial and/or money back guarantee. Many of the good ones offer them both. But it’s important to be extra cautious if they’re asking for your credit card.

 

4. Be Careful Of The Automatic Renewal

Membership sites and subscription based products that come with a discounted trial usually have an automatic renewal policy. It’s best to do some research before you sign up. You are providing them with sensitive account information. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure their payment system is safe and secure.

Contact support and find out what their cancellation policy and procedure is. Do they require 30 days’ notice to cancel? Even with 100% cancellations, a scam like this can operate and make money. If they’re billing everyone that joins for just the first 30 days before they cancel, they’re making a fortune. Some people will fight to get their original investment back, but many will be happy to just cancel the subscription and take the first month as a loss.

And although they may offer a “money-back” guarantee, if it’s just a flat-out scam to begin with, it will be difficult (if not impossible) to get a refund. Research their procedure ahead of time and establish a line of communication with them.

Another semi-scam here is when you purchase a product thinking it’s a one-time payment, but it turns out to be a monthly recurring one. They don’t always tell you this when you sign up. I’ve had to ask for refunds before as a result of this scam.

 

5. No Contact Information

If they don’t have a legitimate way to get in touch, take that as a big red flag.

You may stumble onto a program that claims to pay 6 (and even 7-figures) to its members, but their only method of communication is an obscure email.

Legitimate companies, especially ones that deal in these dollar amounts, will have information about who owns the company, who manages it, and so on.

They will usually have a “CONTACT” form or the ability to submit a support ticket.

When spending a considerable amount of money (as many of these programs require), you should be able to contact help and support before you buy.

Send them a message, ask a question about the program, and see if there is someone on the other end before you transfer funds and sign up.

Also, look for a legitimate ‘About Us’ page.

For an example of a program that considers your confidence a priority, check out one of my top recommended programs, Wealthy Affiliate. When you scroll down and move through the tabs at the top of the page, you will find contact information, an about section, and detailed information about what they teach.

 

6. Are you buying a product or a lifestyle?

Like the get-rich-quick scam, this is one of the easiest ways to spot a rip-off.

Does their sales video, free webinar, or even free membership, spend more time telling you about how they live? Usually these will start out with a little “about me” introduction that turns out to be half the presentation (or more). You will be told a rags to riches story and probably shown pictures of family vacations and luxury retreats.

The videos and pictures at home will probably include an exotic car in the driveway and a huge estate home in the background. I’ve even watched webinars where a significant amount of cash is just sitting on a desk in the background, as if it’s just normal. They have so much money they can’t fit it into a pocket, a wallet, or a bank account.

These aren’t “training” videos; they’re lifestyle videos with just enough actual information thrown in to get you interested.

The truth is, most people who earn an income online are not living extravagant lifestyles. And… the ones that are, don’t flaunt it.

A “luxury lifestyle” is possible. However, most who attain it hustle and work hard for it. They provide exceptional value to their audience or clients, and have committed long hours (sometimes years before seeing significant results) to get there.

And… there are some that have made a fortune by ripping people off.

But generally, people who make money online are just like you. They live in a regular home, drive a normal car, get up in the morning, sit down at a desk…

If a product or program has a sales page covered in dollar signs, yachts, mansions, and sports cars, it’s not for certain it’s a scam, but definitely proceed with caution.

I understand the temptation. In fact, I’ve wasted money on these scams before, but more often than not, they are all promise and no substance.

 

7. The Self-Promoting Sales Funnel

If you’ve been looking for ways to make money online, you may have seen this scheme a few times. You may have already lost some money to it.

As mentioned with the other things to look out for, every product and program that has a self-promoting sales funnel is not guaranteed to be shady. There are some legitimate ones with some good training.

But there are a few key things to watch out for. Mostly, do they want you to buy traffic to sell their program?

The way this scam works is that (almost) from the word “go”, they tell you they have a “made-for-you” or “done-for-you” sales funnel. They may also call it a marketing funnel… and it’s usually “proven” to work.

Their done-for-you funnel is apparently a complete “machine” that sells their program. There will usually be landing or squeeze pages, a sales page and/or sales video, and a series of emails for you to send out.

All you have to do is buy the marketing tools, such as an email autoresponder, and then send traffic to their sales page.

Unfortunately, getting through the traffic is the most difficult and expensive part (that’s why they want you to do it).

If it was so simple, they would not need you to do it. The reason they do, however, is that the primary method of driving traffic to the sales page is through paid advertising. They’re not going to pay for the traffic. You will.

But don’t worry. With their proven sales funnel, you will almost certainly make more money in commissions than you spend on ads.

But something doesn’t add up here. Let me explain…

 

You Can’t Lose?

99% of the time, these programs will fall into the “lifestyle selling” category mentioned above. The pitch may be done blatantly by doing a sales video while driving a Ferrari.

Or they may be more subtle about it and casually mention the incredible vacation they went on (adding, “if you haven’t been there, I highly recommend it.”).

For example, programs like The Six-Figure Mentors don’t promise that you’ll get rich… but the not-so-subtle implication is clearly there.

Other similar programs may make crazy claims, saying something like “you’ll earn $15,000 within 6 months.” They may even guarantee it.

The question is: how much money will you spend to make that $15,000?

Will it be $1000? How about $2000?

They’re saying you’ll get more money back than what you put in — which in itself isn’t a problem.

It’s that they tell you it’ll be quick and that they’ve done most of the work for you.

In other words, they have a machine that prints money. What else could it be? You put a dollar in, and it spits out five?

For the sake of simplicity, let’s use some easy numbers.

If you were buying into a program with the hopes of replacing your income and your goal was to earn $10,000 per month, how much would you expect to spend?

You can not earn $10,000 with a $50 or $100 investment (the average buy-in for these marketing funnel programs).

Even if you spent 10K to cover the cost of the program and advertising, you’d have to double your money to 20K to clear 10K.

The internet is full of great opportunities. but double-your-money opportunities? No…

They don’t tell you upfront that you’ll need to spend “thousands” to earn “thousands.”

What they do is show you videos of Ferraris, mansions, exotic vacations, and a limited time offer that’s only going to cost you 50 or 100 bucks to get in.

 

The Money Printing Machine

I can’t emphasize this point enough because it applies to so many scams out there.

To be clear, there are legit programs that will show you how to earn five figures or more per month. But the legit ones are long-term educational programs, not done-for-you systems that claim to be quick or easy.

To put it into perspective, let’s return to our 10K per month example…

Since “10K in 2 or 3 years!” is not a very great sales pitch, you’ll be sold something like “10K in 60 days!!!”

Those are some pretty impressive numbers. A reasonable person knows this is going to cost more than fifty or a hundred bucks. But at the “point of sale,” they still don’t know exactly how much.

On the high-side, the average person may assume the REAL cost of this “done-for-you” proven system is probably in the ball-park of $1000.

So what does a $1,000 system that pays you back $10K in 60 days look like?

Well, we’re talking about a machine that increases the value of your money by 1000 percent (or 10 times) within a very short period of 60 days.

Let’s forget about 60 days and say you’ll have to endure an entire 6 months.

For every dollar you put in, you get ten…

Are the richest men in the world capable of 1000% returns? Could Bill Gates put a billion dollars into something and get ten billion out?

And why stop at 1 billion? Why not put 10 billion in and get 100 billion out?

As we drift back to reality here, the obvious answer is that it’ll take more than $1000 to earn $10,000.

Even if you spent $5000, we’re talking about a 200% return… but most people don’t go into these things expecting to pay that kind of money.

More importantly, they don’t tell you that you’ll need that kind of money.

Even the best investors in the world rarely (if ever) get returns of 100%, especially after you add up all the investments that went bad. The Scam: If they did, you can be certain they’re not going to package it and sell it online for a hundred bucks.

And here’s why the numbers don’t add up.

If they really had this golden goose money machine, this “proven” done-for-you system, the obvious thing to do would be to keep throwing money into it.

But that’s not what they’re doing. They’re creating training programs, videos, webinars, and high pressure sales pages with countdown timers… to get YOU to throw YOUR money into the machine.

And that’s the scam. Instead of making money, the machine loses money. But… in the process of losing money, you’re still making a few sales here and there, and sending new members into the program.

At some point, you quit, or run out of money. But by then, your advertising dollars have brought in half a dozen new people with the same hope of getting rich. And then they start paying for advertising.

The scam creators get all the benefits from your sales (new members), and they didn’t spend any money on advertising. You did…

The only time they actually spent money (to pay out commissions) was when a sale was made. They’ve pushed all of their advertising expenses and all of the risk onto the people who bought and promoted it.

This graphic explains the scam.

 

8. The Use of Scarcity Tactics

The online world moves quickly. Grabbing someone’s attention and keeping it for more than a few minutes (or even seconds) is tough.

Even legitimate marketers use scarcity to keep you on the page. They want you to take an action that moves you closer to buying. When you believe something is limited or running out, you’re more inclined to purchase it now.

Scarcity alone is not a sign that something is a scam. How it’s applied, though, can tell us a lot.

The use of scarcity to influence behavior is nothing new. It’s the fundamental force that drives competition, upon which the entire economy is built. The market operates on the premise that there is not enough stuff for everyone.

In the physical world, this can be true.

But, in the digital universe, not so much. How scarce is a digital download? How does one run out of online information?

There are honest reasons for limiting access to things online. For example, personal consultation.

When it comes to scams, however, scarcity is purely manufactured.

 

Weapons of Influence

One of the most highly-regarded books in the marketing world is called “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini. Published in 1984, Robert describes 6 principles that he refers to as “weapons of automatic influence.”

Scarcity is used by everyone, from car salespeople and real estate agents, to restaurants and grocery stores.

A good example is the “limited time only” menu item at your favorite fast-food restaurant (I’m talking to you, Wendy, and your Bacon Portabella Mushroom Melt… that’s the second or third time I’ve mentioned burgers in this article, and I don’t even care for them that much).

People in the “make-money-online” industry are experts at employing scarcity. Not necessarily to be dishonest, but because it took a lot of market testing, promotion, and even paid advertising to get your attention.

And none of that matters if they can’t keep your attention and turn you into a buyer.

They might be selling the greatest thing ever, but if you click the back button and leave (even with the intent of returning), they know the chances that you’ll ever come back are slim.

 

When Scarcity is Legit and When It’s a Scam
So, since both honest and dishonest people use this strategy, how do we know what to look for?

 

Is It a Physical Product or a Digital Download?
Can you imagine iTunes having limited quantities of your favorite song?

In theory, a digital product can have unlimited copies. An online membership program can have as many members as there are people online.

If there is no physical product involved, then using the term “limited” is probably a scam.

There is an exception to this rule, however, which is that membership programs may provide personal consultation or direct access to the person teaching the course.

In this case, it’s understandable if spots are limited or if there is a waiting list.

A person’s time is obviously not unlimited.

 

Is the product location specific?
Although it seems like there’s a Starbucks, McDonald’s (and here in Canada, Tim Horton’s) on every corner, at some point they need to put a cap on it.

However, in the online world, this is rarely the case.

It’s probably a scam if the program claims to have limited spots open in your area. Stay clear of these.